Abstract:Representatives of the worldwide nanotechnology community are gathered in Seattle this week for the ISO TC 229 (nanotechnologies) 2009 Plenary Meeting, hosted by ANSI and the U.S. delegation, led by U.S. NNCO director Dr. Clayton Teague. Your humble correspondent will be providing short daily dispatches during the course of the week.

I'm here as an observer of JWG1 (Joint Working Group 1, Terminology and Nomenclature) and my ONAMI colleagues Bettye Maddux and Stacey Harper are here as delegates to JWG1 and JWG3 (Health, Safety and Environmental Aspects) respectively, all of us part of the U.S. delegation of 40-50 people from industry, government agencies and research institutions. The hope is that the week will see progress (i.e. completion of sub-projects in each of 4 working groups) that will assist in the commercialization of nanotechnologies both profitably and safely. In this new field, as in established ones, it matters a lot that buyers and sellers, producers and users, speak the same language when discussing materials and components, and know that related measurement methods and safety procedures are understood and practiced consistently from one place to another. How else does Intel know how to 'copy exactly' what happens in one factory to another; or do BASF's many factories, contract manfacturers and customers around the world know that their outgoing and incoming QA tests are compatible?

Tonight the German and U.S. delegations met for an informal dinner, with table talk covering such things as the how the roles and authorities of standards setting agencies (e.g. NIST) and regulatory bodies compare between the two countries (not very different for the standards setting groups) and some of the latest findings in industry and government labs related to nano-TiO2 containing sunscreens (looks like a win-win so far, the nano products are more effective and no adverse health effects have been seen).

Tomorrow morning the meetings begin.

A deep and broad look at the state-of-the-art in nanoEHS

Battelle, Intertox, Porter Wright, ONAMI, UW, UO, OSU and several other organizations are also putting on a two-day Nanotechnology Health and Safety Forum as an educational service, with a top notch set of speakers and panelists in four sequential units: